Malawi's education system (primary, secondary and tertiary) has experienced a number of changes and faced challenges prompting those concerned to ask whether standards are going down or not.
The system has been overwhelmed since the United Democratic Front (UDF) government introduced free primary education, which meant recruiting additional teachers (at times untrained), building more secondary schools and hiring more lecturers.
Adamson Muula, a lecturer at the Malawi College of Medicine, one of the five constituent colleges of the University of Malawi, in Blantyre, Malawi's second city, said people worried too much about standards without giving a clear definition.
"Standards can be the goal, the yardstick, or what we desire to achieve; so, we can say that the standards have continued to be high, but we have not always met those standards.
"The Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE), which is an equivalent of O Level [Ordinary Level certificate in the British education system, when students aged 16 can leave school], is a standard.
"Unless people can suggest that the current MSCE - I mean the examinations and not the certificate - are low, then we cannot always say that the standards are low.
"And the challenges which the educational system faces are many, from the proliferation of private schools to denominational universities. We should not prevent these schools and colleges from getting established, but we should be careful in ensuring that we do not promote a policy of "everything goes".
"The University of Malawi, and Mzuzu University [in northern Malawi] too, should not escape our scrutiny because they also must meet standards. The large primary and secondary school enrolment is a challenge, especially without trained teachers to fill posts.
"We can argue that free primary school is the problem; yes, it contributed to the problem, but, much more so the problem is that we have not invested in infrastructure and teacher training.
"Should we, in 2008, be saying that some pupils should be prevented from getting enrolled in school because of lack of fees? No.
"But we can ask what sort of education, if any, the pupils are getting? I will send my sons to a government primary school when you tell me one name of ... [a cabinet minister] sending their children to a government primary school.
"And it is wrong to say that the universities should be exclusive to the cream, in the name of quality education and good standards; it should be for people who will benefit from the education, and from whom society will later benefit.
"If some people already know what is being taught in universities, why should they be enrolled? Unless you define 'cream' in a rather holistic way, cream in character; cream in service; cream in respect for others; cream in academics.
"If standards have gone down at all it's not because of free primary school education alone. The investment in the Ministry of Education is the highest among all ministries in this country.
"We are not always sure that all the money being spent in the Ministry of Education goes into education; maybe we need to start differentiating between Ministry of Education and the education of our children.
"Lecturers too need some motivation. From the strikes that we have observed in the past few years, I would say lecturers lack motivation. But I also know that a strike can be a way of expressing dissent for a variety of issues, including the working environment.
"Often the money issue is the easiest and, regarding promotions, the University of Malawi has at least stipulated how promotions can be attained: we do not get promoted when we have not asked for it.
"You ask, and it is granted or denied, and when denied you are supposed to get the reasons for such a situation. I would not say one gets this feedback all the time.
"We need to find money for research, and not just from overseas but also from local resources, to take education to another level.
jk/he
The system has been overwhelmed since the United Democratic Front (UDF) government introduced free primary education, which meant recruiting additional teachers (at times untrained), building more secondary schools and hiring more lecturers.
Adamson Muula, a lecturer at the Malawi College of Medicine, one of the five constituent colleges of the University of Malawi, in Blantyre, Malawi's second city, said people worried too much about standards without giving a clear definition.
"Standards can be the goal, the yardstick, or what we desire to achieve; so, we can say that the standards have continued to be high, but we have not always met those standards.
"The Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE), which is an equivalent of O Level [Ordinary Level certificate in the British education system, when students aged 16 can leave school], is a standard.
"Unless people can suggest that the current MSCE - I mean the examinations and not the certificate - are low, then we cannot always say that the standards are low.
"And the challenges which the educational system faces are many, from the proliferation of private schools to denominational universities. We should not prevent these schools and colleges from getting established, but we should be careful in ensuring that we do not promote a policy of "everything goes".
"The University of Malawi, and Mzuzu University [in northern Malawi] too, should not escape our scrutiny because they also must meet standards. The large primary and secondary school enrolment is a challenge, especially without trained teachers to fill posts.
"We can argue that free primary school is the problem; yes, it contributed to the problem, but, much more so the problem is that we have not invested in infrastructure and teacher training.
"Should we, in 2008, be saying that some pupils should be prevented from getting enrolled in school because of lack of fees? No.
"But we can ask what sort of education, if any, the pupils are getting? I will send my sons to a government primary school when you tell me one name of ... [a cabinet minister] sending their children to a government primary school.
"And it is wrong to say that the universities should be exclusive to the cream, in the name of quality education and good standards; it should be for people who will benefit from the education, and from whom society will later benefit.
"If some people already know what is being taught in universities, why should they be enrolled? Unless you define 'cream' in a rather holistic way, cream in character; cream in service; cream in respect for others; cream in academics.
"If standards have gone down at all it's not because of free primary school education alone. The investment in the Ministry of Education is the highest among all ministries in this country.
"We are not always sure that all the money being spent in the Ministry of Education goes into education; maybe we need to start differentiating between Ministry of Education and the education of our children.
"Lecturers too need some motivation. From the strikes that we have observed in the past few years, I would say lecturers lack motivation. But I also know that a strike can be a way of expressing dissent for a variety of issues, including the working environment.
"Often the money issue is the easiest and, regarding promotions, the University of Malawi has at least stipulated how promotions can be attained: we do not get promoted when we have not asked for it.
"You ask, and it is granted or denied, and when denied you are supposed to get the reasons for such a situation. I would not say one gets this feedback all the time.
"We need to find money for research, and not just from overseas but also from local resources, to take education to another level.
jk/he
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
Share this article